Falls

Long shadows crept through the spindly branches of young poplar and overreaching beeches and the hardy shrubs of undying origins. The ground was puddled with melting snow. She had lived in a colder place than this once but it was so long ago now, she has almost forgotten the terrors there. Almost but not quite. They linger around the edges, haunting and foul.

Echidna was tired.

And she stands quietly near the pool at the bottom of the falls. The ice had broken away and the water moved freely. It chilled her mouth when she bent her head to drink long gulps. It had been a long journey, hadn’t it? And yet—

There were moments when she felt like she had been asleep for a very long time and others where she felt she hadn’t slept in a century. Impossible, she knew, but it didn’t stop the strange sensation she had whenever she stood still for too long. She had not come here for anything in particular, she had not mentally brought herself to these shores with these strange creatures. No, it had been by chance and accident and she is no more aware of them than they are of her.